Dry January? Never Heard of Her

There we go.

Welcome in, everybody to the Craft Beer Republic. Thanks for drinking. Thanks for joining. I'm Greg, I'm being joined by someone who will never participate in Dry January. And that is Flex. What's up, big fella? You know, I will support people who do it, but I will never support it. I'm gonna cut that right out of the show. I dare you. And, uh, keeping it.

I'm trying to make this not sound sexual. As not dry as it can be in January. That's Erica. Damn it. That is. Really hard to follow the. Show. Now that's all we need. Yeah. Sorry, I was I was trying to. I almost said what I was like. That sounds really bad. I didn't I didn't know what direction to take against the dry January. It's kind of nice because I'm usually salty. That's pretty dry. So okay. That's true. Sloppy for January. Let's do it. Yeah. I wonder if we should redo this.

Uh. I'm sorry. Sorry, McDreamy. You're listening. Wet show. Oh, gosh. Uh, let's move on quickly. @CraftBeerRepublic @flex_me_a_beer underscores in between and @Neck_nosh_llc, LLC. For all your saltiness and anti dry January goods. Here we go. That doesn't. Sound any. Better. Anti-Drug. I think it sounds a little bit better. Anti dry January goods. I don't know, I'm gonna steer this car right off a cliff. Uh, thank you to Miami. Miami for being our top listing

city of last week. Hello. I wonder if that's, uh,

Vanessa and, uh, the hubs over there listening or something. Hi, Vanessa. Hey, Vanessa. Vanessa. Right at the top of the show. Call me Mid-yawn. Yeah, I like when you open your mouth. Never mind. Uh, anyways, I'm. I'm sorry if if the show took a sexual turn, I surprisingly did not intend it to this time. Uh, usually I do. So anyways, let's get on to things. I've, uh. I fucked this up royally. She deserves it. Let's find out what Eric is drinking.

Out of my beer. Oh, I love my beer. I love my friends. Well, this is going to be really exciting because I think we're all going to think the same thing. So my beer is from Alaska. Mhm. All right. So are you having a beer in Alaska. I totally think of Deb and Flex and y'all, when, um, when I think of Alaska. So, um, my friend Jacob went to Alaska and brought this back for me, and this is the first time I've had it. It's. And it's so obscure that it's not on untapped unless I. Yeah,

I could not find it on untapped. So this is Alaskan moonshine. That sounds like the most Alaska thing I've ever heard. Right off the grid. Totally off the grid. So this is straight from someone's bathtub in Alaska. It's from actually Broken Tooth Brewing, and it's called Rock, paper,

citrus. And y'all know I like. What a cool name. It's very. I thought the same damn thing. Greg. Did you. Yeah. And it's got, like, the hands kind of doing the rock, paper, scissors kind of thing. And I'm here for it. That's a great name. Great can. Yeah. So it's super cool. Um, and it's a 12 ouncer. And like last week I had like a quadruple, I think an 8% or whatever, you know, something like that. It's a quadruple. So I'm just keeping it just mellow

in a 12 or 12 ounce or 6.2%. It is a what kind of. It's a pale ale, right? So. So this is an American pale ale. I found it. It is a single hop American pale ale. Must be Citra. The perfect blend of crisp citrus and flavorful hops is rich. Smooth malt creates a clean and everlasting flavor, ideal for any adventure ahead. I'm gonna go fight some bears with this one. It has a 372 on Untappd. Oh, so you found it? Yeah, I just found it too. Okay, good. I couldn't find thousand ratings.

Thousand 86. Ratings 372. Yeah. Okay. Let's see if it. Its color is kind of tangerine and its aroma is very tangerine. Mhm. Which I love. But let's see if it lives up to like a good or kind of like a fake tangerine. We'll see. It's delicious. Yeah. It follows through just with like a little hint of a tangerine flavor. Kind of citrusy. See. Nice body to it. A little bit of bitter hoppiness. Yeah, it's a great crushable beer, I love it. Nice. Good job. Alaska.

Yeah, I could get drunk in Alaska with this beer for sure. Yeah. If you're. What is your allotment, like, 36oz a day or some shit? Is that it? Something like that. Yeah, it's. It's like they can cut you off. Or if you're out in a bar, you can only drink that much. Yeah. You're in public. Drinking limit is like 36oz a day. And I think technically it's supposed to carry with you from establishment to establishment.

But what if they got a, like, a system? They stamp your hand 12 ounce, 12 ounce. They chip every. Everyone's got a chip. There you go. Yeah. And Broken Tooth is kind of a funny name. I like that for the brewery. And. Yeah. Delicious. It's worth hauling it back. So, um, get to check out Alaska this year with my, um, my side of the family, so I'm excited for that. Like a cruise or just to just to go. It's gonna be a cruise, which is not my ideal.

I'd rather actually kind of get in there, but it's my dad's wish. He's not super mobile, and they sold their my childhood home and wanted to contribute toward a cruise for everyone is kind of their like, celebration. You burned down all your memories. So instead we'll send you on a cruise. Right? Let's go. On. Let's go to Alaska. So, um. Yeah, it'll be kind of fun to

check that out. We're going to need, like, videos while you're there drunk, just like, hey everybody, I am definitely not drunk on crutches in Alaska. There goes the cruise ship. They will not let me back on. I have broken every Alaskan drinking law. Yeah, that'd be great. Well, nice shout out to Jacob. You know, it's it's the perfect finding a beer that's like, sort of off the grid is perfect for him because he's very off the grid.

Super off the grid. Yeah. He's got like 80 acres out in, like, mountain lion country, and I could see him drinking some broken tooth. It's perfect. Very nice. But he finds a lot of broken teeth. If he's in, he might mountain lion territory. I was gonna say that my neighborhood is mountain lion territory now,

so you know. You know, I live out in the wild. Right. So we have a community post. Is the wilderness. There is a mountain lion just chilling in Loomis. One. Just one, because they they have a, you know, I don't think they hang out in packs like coyotes. Oh. Took down a horse the other day a mile away from my house. Oh, no big deal. 7:00 in the morning. Yeah. That's insane. So now you're really gonna want to come hang out near me? Can't wait. Yeah.

So we're a little bit kind of the, um, the great wilderness in our own way as well. So, anyways, what were you gonna say? Greg just saying I don't. I don't know about taking down. Coyotes and horses and mountain lions and I don't know, Flexy. You guys have any creatures running around Milwaukee? Oh, boy. Uh, some. Cool for. Me. To walk around. Uh, no. No cougars here. We've had a couple, uh, rogue bears in the last couple years that come down from up north. Uh, Canadian. Bears. Yeah.

One got hit on the freeway by a semi, though, so that was kind of lame. Um, they were like, the news was like following it around. They were like. Oh. So the bear showed up here today, and then the next day, the bear showed up, and, you know, this neighbor's driveway today, and it was on the freeway, and the. Bear showed up on the front of a mack truck today. As an ornament hood. Ornament. Yeah, we just got regular stuff like deer, coyotes, fox, regular stuff. Yeah, we have a ton of coyote like,

we have coyotes in our front yard that I'll chase. Oh, that's gross. Really? Oh, I'll chase your shit. Like I will. One time I was a little drunk, and I chased him. Cause I don't want him to feel welcome in my front yard where Marty comes out to pee and stuff, right? Because he's like a little snack for them. And I was a little. And I've done this many times, but this time I was a little tipsy. I walked out there, saw a coyote. It was literally the biggest one I've seen.

I handed the wife the leash, and I just took off running after it. And I got to the corner and this car drives up and they roll down the window like, hey, are you chasing that coyote? I was like, I don't know, are you? Yeah. We're looking for him too. I was like, yeah, me too. Then I was waiting for like, Peter to jump out and be like, you know, don't chase coyotes and Dallas

me with red paint or something. Um, so then I chased him back into, like, the back corner of our complex where, you know, probably really dumb

because I basically cornered him. Right, right. So you were him? Yeah. And then, uh, he snuck past me, and because, you know, he's way faster than a fat drunk guy. Did you bring any weaponry with you? Any sort of, like, pocket knife? Like, were you just kind of running in your cargo shorts? Size 16 shoes. Those are weapons. You know. Stick that thing right up. His ass. Yeah, I gotta register those with the state police. Yeah. So, yeah, I'm an idiot.

I just don't want him to feel welcome in our front. Yeah, right. You know, I gotta go to that green space and eat some bunnies. You do? We live in a parkway, and I've only ever seen a coyote here in, like, the five years we've been here. Twice. Mhm. They're around. They're just not that much. Huh? Apparently I almost hit. Him with my car a couple of times. We drive and it's not a unbusy street

like, it's a pretty busy street. We're driving down the street at night and all of a sudden coyote, it's like, whoa, do not hurt my car. Wow. Yeah, not your car. Not my car. Chu would wail on that coyote if it hurt your car. Yeah, he's got my back. So, anyways, uh, not a coyote show. How about that? All right, you guys. Anybody do any good research lately? I'll be honest, I have not. Like, as far as breweries go, uh, a local brewery closed.

Eureka had their second location right down the street from us,

and they did the old Irish goodbye. Like they legit pulled all the furniture out and didn't say anything. We've had like four breweries close here. But usually they make an announcement like, hey, thanks the community for blah blah blah. They were all made announcements, but it was just like one after the other just fell like dominoes. Oh, sad. Yeah. It's weird. Irish goodbye. And somebody posted about it I, I tagged I restored it last week and then I tagged them like hey,

what happened? And I can see that they saw my story and then they never responded, which makes it more mysterious. Ooh, weird. The beer wasn't bad. Like we enjoyed going. They had a really good, um, Indian food place next door, so we'd go over, we'd order some Indian food, take it over to the brewery, have some beers. Yum. Delicious. That's a dream. Yeah. So it's one of our favorite Indian food places. That has really good food. Never had. Never once. No.

Oh, dude, do you guys not have Indian food out there? No. I mean, we do.

It's. Oh, yeah. Get on it. Just. I don't know, it just doesn't, uh, fascinate me. Oh, they got some good stuff, man. I do. It's my favorite. You know what gets. You ever seen along came Polly? Yeah. That's right. And they go to the Indian restaurant. Ben Stiller was, like, sweating. That's all I think about. So I'm. I'm, like, tarnished. That was one of my really good friends. He he's now married. But his first date with his wife, they went to Ethiopian food.

And I was like, how was it? He goes, oh, dude. He goes about halfway through it hit me. He goes, and I could not wait to get out of there. I was like, what'd you do? Like, I hope he didn't, you know, try and take her home or anything like that. He goes, I didn't know what to do. Like it's hitting me. I'm not gonna do what I needed to do at the restaurant. So then, like, we go to leave, and I'm taking her back to her place, and the whole drive back, I'm, like, squirming in my seat.

Just clenching my cheeks. Yeah. He's like. You know, every time we were outside, I'd, you know, try and release as much as possible. Oh, jeez. No Ethiopian food on first date. Oh, man, that just reminds me of the stories of, uh,

when I first started seeing my wife. And last thing you want to do when you first start seeing a girl is fart in front of her. So for, like, the first three months we were together, um, I would just hold it in the entire time that. I gotta go to the bathroom. And, like, my stomach would, like, gurgle, you know, while she's like, you know, we're cuddling or she's laying in my lap and. Oh, and. Then she pulls the oh, are you okay? And she goes, yeah, I'm just fine.

And you're like, oh yeah, I'm good. Like, whatever. Don't you worry about me. I'm still over here just looking at like the clock and you're like, oh, like midnight. I'm out here at midnight. Like, could it just be midnight already? So you do the hug and the little makeout. And the second I would get into my car, it would just be like, whomp! Windows are popping up. He cut it off. After, like. Two kisses. Oh, it was just like he. Didn't try anything. Or no joke. It was like two minute farts at

a time, cause it was just. It was the worst. I can see it now. Like, hey, you know, little 20 something year old Flex, you want to come back to my bedroom? And you're like, uh, I. Respect you too much. I respect you. As a person and my potential

future wife. And I don't want to mess anything up. I better go home now. Oh, and shit, my pants. Sounds exactly like me. I think I think I know I've told the story on the show, but like, I was with my now wife for about three ish months, I was saying it was one of the first times I stayed at her house. Probably wasn't three a couple of months. One of the first times I stayed at her house and, uh, we're in bed. She had just fallen like she was.

That light just had fallen asleep, closed her eyes, kind of sleep. And I was laying there. I hadn't quite fallen asleep. Uh, okay. I remember. This one. I let. Out. Actually let out a little squeaker, and she goes, uh oh. I think he just got a text message. So then. Then I had to go with. I was like, you goddamn right I did. So I was like, reaching for my phone. I'm checking my phone as if I had a text message like, is it okay? Is it important? I was like, no,

it's just a ESPN update. We're all good. Back to sleep. I'm gonna now very loudly put my phone down to show you that I took my phone in my hand because it's definitely my phone that made noise and not my butt cheeks. Oh, yeah. So bad. Have you cross-checked that with her to see if she was just kind of saving face for you or. No, we've we've since talked about it, and she had no idea. Oh, wow. Yeah, she she's awesome. She's a delight. Yeah. She had no idea.

She goes and I told her she here's the thing. Like, because I'm the one under pressure in more ways than one. To me it was like, oh no, I have completely fucked. She didn't remember it at all because to her it was it was a notification from my phone. My phone buzzed. She was half asleep. There was nothing to think about me over here. I'm like, oh God, like sweating. It'll eat you alive for the rest of your life. Oh yeah. I'm like, oh no, my phone's fine,

but maybe I should go to the bathroom now, you know? So yeah. Good times. That's hilarious. Yeah. I remember a couple once or twice we were at her house and, like, had dinner or whatnot, and then I was like, hey, I need to run to my car for something. And she's like, oh, what are you getting in your car? I was like, I just gotta go. To my car. Some things. I'm an AV guy. There's something in there. Maybe I forgot my computer I didn't bring, I don't know. Oh.

Us guys. Oh, wow. I have to rethink a lot of circumstances right now. My wife always talks about not a wife show. But, uh, when we would go out to dinner, she was always like. I never understood why. I just kept going on more dates with you. Because the way I would eat. Just one day, we went to a burger joint, and I got, you know, it was like a hangover burger. It had the fried egg on it.

Oh, yeah. Well, it was over easy. So I'm sitting there scarfing on this burger, and I have yolk running down my arms to my elbows, and I'm trying to get all these extra napkins from the waitress, and it's just. I'm sorry. Can I ask her a bath, please? And then a couple weeks later, we went to the new Mexican restaurant in town, and, um, I had, you know, only have ever known, like, Qdoba for Mexican food, right? Oh, we've talked about Qdoba.

Hand-held burritos, right? Yeah. So we go to this Mexican restaurant, and I order a burrito, and it comes with, uh, covered in cheese and, like, like a red sauce on it. Like. What do they call it, like, wet burrito or whatever? Yeah, yeah. Well, I never eaten a burrito. Not with my hands before. You did not pick it up? I picked it up. You did not. And I am just trying to mow other thing I got covered in Red Sox. Red Sox running all over me. And I refuse to put it down because once you.

Once you pick it up, man, it's all over. You can't go back. No no no no. It was, uh. Take a minute. Kind of an embarrassing moment when you have to get. Halfway through just to be able to hold it with one hand so you can grab your beer. And write. Beer napkin? Yeah, in my case, napkins. Uh, yeah. 13 napkins. Yeah. Oh, that's good shit. Fun stuff. Just fun stuff. Oh, man. So research, huh? Research. Wow. Uh, we, um. I don't know if I talked about last week, we went to the only,

um, brewery in the entire UAE, like Abu Dhabi. Dubai? There's one. So our friends were like, hey, we got reservations somewhere. You're going to be excited. We were so excited when we found out what it was because we had had, like, Coronas on the beach and. You actually had to make a reservation. Yeah. Um, because, yeah, there's plenty of people because there's. A lot of one. Brewery. The one. Right. And there's only like 12% people. There are actual like nationals, right, that are from there.

And there's so many of them all over the world. Right. So there's a lot of people that do drink beer, but it's just not as welcome. Um, so anyways, it was really cool. There was great. Like it was a great hazy IPA. It was called Side Hustle, which seems like a really common name for a brewery. There's actually one 45 minutes from where I live called Side Hustle. Oh really? Yeah, and it originated this one, though, originated in PA, uh, so in Pennsylvania. So I was going to ask shred

about that actually, because. Maybe I bet one of them like is Side Hustle brewing. The other one is side hustle. Right. Beer Co. Brewing Company. Yeah yeah yeah yeah. So somehow it's connected to Pennsylvania but they actually brew their stuff there in Abu Dhabi. And it was it was delicious and it probably was shit. But compared to what I had been drinking. But when it. Hits the lips. Yeah. No, it actually it was good. It was good stuff and it was really enjoyable.

And the great barbecue food and the environment was cool. So that was such a treat. Just like, oh man, we take for granted what we have here. Hell yeah. Oh yeah we do. Yeah. Brewery closing. We're like, yeah, that brewery sucked. Glad it closed, right? They got their own brewery. It's funny running to Eureka Brewing, right? Like, ah, I love it. Here's the thing I didn't dislike Eureka Brewing. But yeah, it's okay. It's funny you say that.

My mom, uh, just texted me the other day because we had a couple breweries close by us, and she said, check in to. Make sure you're okay. She said, okay, buddy. She said, mob craft closed question mark and I just replied, yep. Yeah. And then she said, oh, I read this article that this other brewery closed. And I said, yep. She said, is that normal for craft beer now? I said, I said, it is when you suck. I mean, you're not.

Wrong, because that's kind of what's happening now is we've talked about it a couple times on the show that, you know, it's not like the boom in craft beer anymore. It's no, you can't just exist and make money. It's yeah, you have to. Put out good product and be

personable and, you know, food and et cetera. ET cetera. Otherwise, you're not sticking around. Yeah. In fact, I haven't talked about this on the show. This is a few weeks ago. Um, I'm. I'm gonna leave the name of the brewery out of it because I did like them a lot. We went to a brewery. We met up with some friends, Semi-local ish brewery, and we went. We had food. We had beer. We have not been to this establishment in at least six plus months.

And we each got a couple beers. We ordered some food. Everything was bad And being. Even the food, even the food was bad. Even the food was bad. And before we'd had the food, we liked the food. We enjoyed the beer. The beer was so bad that it was off colored, like got the hazy. It looked like dishwater, like it was so off the rails bad. And so then we were all kind of talking amongst ourselves how bad it was. Yeah. What went down? The owner walks in and sits at the table next to us and I know

the owner. And so I was like, hey guys, how about we shut the fuck up now? You know, it was one of those kind of things. And, uh, you know, he came up, hey, how's it going? And we talked for a minute and thank God he didn't ask how things were going because, like, it was, it wasn't just not great. You wouldn't be able to hide. Yeah. No. At this point there this specific brewery is the only brewery in a, you know, stone's throw.

And I think I don't know what's happened, but I think at this point they're surviving off of being the only brewery in the neighborhood. And if another brewery decides to open up in said area, this brewery, which I thought I really liked, is fucked unless they turn shit around. I mean, I don't know what's going on. Maybe their sales are down so they haven't brewed in four months and their beers just sitting there getting old or something, but it was just all around.

Look, their staff are super friendly and they were friendly this time and that's great. But when your product is horrendous, it's we've heard of this brewery before. Yes, you definitely have. I have some ideas. Oh, okay. I'll I'll answer questions off air okay. Because I, I hope here's the thing. I do hope they turn things around. I hope something was going on. I hope the draft system had a leak of antifreeze or something in it or whatever. I don't want to call them out yet.

I'll definitely give them another chance because I do like them. But um, it was it went from pretty good to really bad. Oh, yeah. No bueno. Sucks. Yeah. I'll move on from that. Womp womp. Yeah. Um, before, you know, I was gonna say, speaking of really bad, here's a new story. But before I do that, let me let me tell you guys what I'm drinking over here. Okay. Hopefully. It's really good. We need a pick me up. Greg. You're telling me. Yeah.

To the bullpen for beer. Well, Mel and I have our whole, uh, dino situation. Dino the dinosaur. When we accidentally forget about beers in the back of the fridge, we call them Dino's. Or do you know the last dinosaur? Uh, and this is fitting because Mel sent me this beer. I didn't even know I had it in the fridge until literally tonight when we go in to record my. My beer fridge right now is purposely low. I have been not buying beer. My pure subscription. They ended their their hotbox.

I haven't had that in a few months. And I was like, I need to purge the beers before I start buying new ones. So it's purposely low. But the last couple of recordings, like I went to my local bottle shop, Trader Joe's, and picked up some beers for the recordings. So we're good. Well, I ran out of time and I was like, oh shit, what's in the fridge? And I saw this beer. It's from a great brewery, Collabing, with another great brewery. And Mel sent it to me and I totally somehow lost in the back.

The food might be a rough one, and I was. Excited at the time and I'm still excited. We'll see how this goes. Mel. I'm sorry, I love you. Uh, this was canned on one 2523. So there's there's your. I know it's not the worst I've ever done, but it's certainly not the best. Got two years. This is 25. 23. Three. Yeah. 23, two years ago. Oof! We shall see. So this is Other Half Brewing Company in collaboration with Burial Beer.

It's called number three. It's one of their ninth anniversary collaborations. It's a West Coast IPA, 6.8% has a collective 402 and untapped with over 1200 ratings, they say. Let's see if we can bring that down. Yeah, we're about to give the two stars. I will grade on a curve. This is my fault. We spent more time with our friends at burial than we would care to admit. We first met up about seven

years ago. Now it's like nine years ago when we randomly stumbled, stumbled, stumbled into their collier location in Asheville around 10 p.m. one night, which I've been to. Great spot. And here we are again, celebrating another anniversary with our best, worst friends by making a Westie with Simcoe, Amarillo, Centennial, and Cascade on the schnoz. Whatever fruity floral ness this probably is supposed to have. Very nice now. Yeah, it's now straight up dank. All I can smell now is the pine.

You hit the pine. So while you drink, I'm gonna ask you, um, so burial is. Is that the one? I think I've seen a lot of photos on the gram where it has, like, um. I think it's sloth from The Goonies. That's. You know, I'm a Goonies girl, born in Goonies town. That would make sense. That seems like something they would do. They have a great spot if you are ever in Asheville. No, n no ankle breaking. Because this is Asheville, not Nashville. Oh. Oh, okay.

So you're saying there's a chance? Yeah. Go to burial. I loved me some burial. We hung out for a while there. Um, yeah. On the tongue jobber. It's probably not at all what it's supposed to taste like. Um, a lot of the sweetness is coming through. Some floral, you know, like bouquet floweriness is coming through and finishes up fairly dank. I appreciate the light body. You know, it's not super malty. It's not some fucking loaf of liquid bread.

I can't stand that in the IPAs these days. So. Same, bro. Same. Yeah. It's not 1999. Flex started on that note, right? Uh, so I bet this was great. Now it's just drinkable. I'm so sorry to not only other half and burial. Burial. I love you so much. I'm also sorry to Mel. Mel, I love you so much, too. Uh, I did not mean to let this age like a fine wine, so, um. Apologies. Shit happens. It happens. It's okay. Be. Go easy on yourself. It's a new year.

New new you. You know what I did? I got, uh, I got a bunch of gift cards for tavau for Christmas because the in-laws have no idea what to get me. And I keep telling my wife, just tell him not to get me anything. We're all adults. Let's stop exchanging Christmas gifts. Well, that's not acceptable. So I got some tavau gift cards, and I. This is not a plug for tavau at all, because they don't sponsor us

anymore. But I did put in some orders, so maybe by the next show I'll have some, some some good fresh. Yeah. There we go. Not quite as fresh, but yeah, some something different. That's good. Yeah. I'll have some, uh, fresh ish overpriced beers that. I have to pay for. Yeah, yeah. That gift, that adult gifting thing. Like, what's your guys's opinion on that? I'm over it. I. I have no problem with it. I here's my problem with it. So like my I hate Christmas. Well, I hate Christmas. Yeah.

Hey. Fuck you Christmas. But B so we're adults. And if there's something I want that any of us can afford, I've already purchased it for myself. And there's something that I want that we can't afford. You're not going to go out and buy me a new computer or iPad or whatever really expensive thing that I want. And maybe you would buy me a gift card towards that, you know, like, oh, you want an iPad? So here's an Apple gift card or similar. Isn't there like a really cool

like belt that you're trying to, like, get hold of? No. Oh, well, maybe the, uh, the cooler belt? Yes. Okay. Okay. But overall, though, like, there's there's not a lot that I want in life that, uh, you know, the random $25 gift from the step sibling is going to achieve. And to me, I would rather that person save $25, go out, have a couple of beers, enjoy themselves. I'm all about experiences. The wife and I don't exchange gifts. We're we go out or we do experiences. We don't do birthday gifts.

We just we do things. That's that's the thing. And I'm all about it. I'm all about memories over shit. And my rule has always been, if you're going to give gifts where adults, let's give booze. But that burnt me because like, this year, the step sister got me this clearly gifted, uh, rum gift set. Uh, I don't drink rum at all. Like, not my least favorite spirit, but definitely. It might be my least favorite. Spirit. Bottom three like I would rather drink rum than tequila, I think. Undecided.

I guess I could crack it open and find out, but now we have this. That's a toughie. That's super random. I've never heard of a rum gift set. I don't take tequila over rum. Yeah, so here's the thing. I looked it up on the Total Wine app because they have the little scanny thing. You can scan the barcode, and I found it on the Total Wine app. I think it was like $33, but, uh, it's discontinued. And the last review was from 11 years ago, so. Come on, maybe.

It's vintage. Maybe I could sell it on eBay for something weird. So that's my my over winded take on gifts, I don't know. Yeah, I know Flex likes Christmas. Yeah, I don't know. I think there's enough little things, you know, because we do, uh, well, with my family, we don't exchange with my wife's family anymore. We used to do dinner with her siblings, like, go out to like a nice dinner and hang out and go somewhere after. And now that's kind of even done, which I don't hate. Yeah, I'm with you.

Uh, we still do gift exchange with my family, and it's like, you know, like 40, $50 range, and you still get some decent things,

and, um, it's worthwhile. And I'm more so, like, just like getting gifts for everybody else. Other. You enjoy picking them out? Because I like that. I know that they're gonna like them and I it's hard for me when I buy them to not want to give them to them right away. Oh, see, I like. When I bought my brother the belt cooler. Right. Now that's cool. By the way, I hate buying people gifts because I really don't want to give them something like a rum and glass gift set that they'll never use.

Well, that's give them something that they'll they'll like. It's super lazy. And look, I don't know my stepsister at all. Like, it's fine. We we got them a Dave and Buster's gift card, which I think is way cooler than a rum gift set, but whatever. Uh, hey, can we trade back? Um, but, like, I want to give you something that you'll use or enjoy or something. And honestly, I'd rather us all like, hey, just let's agree. Everyone's gonna spend whatever it is. 40 bucks on a gift.

Let's put 40 bucks in a pile from everybody and go have a kick ass dinner or some really nice drinks somewhere. Absolutely. I agree with. That. I just, I want to have a good time with people. That's that's my thing. Yeah, I can agree with. That a good time. That's what like, our family used to do, a white elephant. That was hilarious. It was like it had to be some trashy shit from your house. That was just funny. Like, not anything. Something you already. Owned. Yeah, you already owned.

Like, that's how we did White Elephant. It wasn't like anything of value and it was just hilarious. We have so many hilarious stories from. That roll of toilet paper. Just. Yeah, like, there's this dress I bought in a thrift store in Hawaii that was like, ridiculous traditional Hawaiian poofy. I came down a like a banister wearing it one time, and then like it, and then it ends up in the white elephant, like stuff like that. That's hilarious. But yeah. Gifts.

My daughter and my husband both have December birthdays and all the Christmas presents like I, I loathe. That's a tough situation. And I like I'm like a generous person. I like gifting, I like giving people things. But December just gets. Yeah, just gets at me with all the gifting. It's just so much. Went through the year. Like I might see something. Usually alcohol. Oh, I think Coley would love this beer. I'm gonna. I'm gonna buy it for her.

I think, uh, you know, whatever. Flex would love this sexual toy. I'm gonna give it to him. He's gonna love it. He's gonna love it. It's not quite big enough, but he'll he'll make do, uh, you know, whatever it is. And I'd rather just, like, surprise you with the thing in the middle of the year or something. Yeah. I hate the pressure of. I need to buy you a gift, and it needs to be right now,

and I need that. And part of the pressure is me, because I need I need them to either a enjoy it or b use it. I don't want to give them crap because I hate having crap in my house so. I can respect that, that's. For sure. That's solid, solid reasoning, I guess. And none of it's. Not wanting to be generous. It's more of a just like, yeah. Other reasons being like, want to be practical or want people to enjoy things or like, yeah it's not. Yeah.

And I don't know, do you guys do the whole Amazon Wishlist thing? No I have, but no I haven't in a long time. What am I, an OnlyFans girl? Only muscles send me these short shorts. I have black, I have them in gray. Please don't send me any short shorts. Yeah, send me blue. Well, green's his color. We all know that. Yeah, I know green. Really green really. Pops. Yeah. So we do the whole Amazon wish list because the in-laws don't

know us whatsoever. Uh, her family doesn't know her or me. And so it's like, oh, send us your Amazon wish list so we know what to buy you. And I'm like, what the fuck do I put on here? Like, all right, I need a couple. I know, it's like, I need a couple microphone cables, like, you want to buy me a microphone and I. So this is my favorite thing. I'm. Here's how Grinchy an asshole I am. So her dad a few years ago. A couple years ago,

I don't know what it was decided. I'm not buying gifts for my kids anymore because they all have too many grandkids and it's getting expensive and I'm a cheap asshole. So he decided that he would buy for all the grandkids, which I am totally on board with. I call him and ask for it. That is probably the least asshole thing he's done. I'm totally on board by all the kids who still are, knowing that Santa is definitely real. Uh, buy them gifts.

Whatever. Don't buy us anything. Let's not buy you anything. Let's just call it even. Or come share a bottle of really nice wine with us. Because we're classy and we drink wine. You are the classiest. Well, instead, he decided we're all going to do a gift exchange. And it's going to be great. It was not great because every single year we got the same. I won't say who it was, fucking person and vice versa. We always got each other and it was supposed to be like,

spend $50 and we'd spend $50 and that person would spend $17. Come on. It would be like the biggest pile of garbage that we never wanted. And so after two years of this, I deleted the app that they were using to do this, and emails were sent like, hey,

I think this was last year, last year, year before, I think it was last year. Hey, you know, Christmas is coming and the exchange and this and that and blah blah blah. And I the wife goes like, hey, did you get the email? I said, nope. She goes, no, I said no, I deleted it because you deleted the app. I said, yeah. She goes, well, you should have gotten the email. That said, I also deleted my account. I said, I will not be participating. I'm sorry.

Whatever weirdness that puts you in, I am fucking done. I'm so over it. I don't need more crap from insert family member here. I'm. I'm done. At least the other family members who care care enough to give me more gift cards. This is not even that. So, um. I started a revolution. There was a lot of drama, and we don't do it anymore. Yay! Congratulations, Grinch. Sometimes you just gotta hold strong. Yeah. Seriously? So there's no joy at the party?

Good. Glad you cut that off. Yeah. And my my little dark heart grew five sizes or whatever he says. I just I don't like crap for the crap's sake. That's that's what it really comes down to. Yeah. You want to buy someone something, buy them something and whatever. And don't expect anything. I don't ever expect anything from anybody. If I think, like, hey, this person would like it. I'm just gonna buy it for them. And that's the end of it. Right.

There's. Yeah. You don't expect. That's what ruins stuff like that though, is there's some really good gift givers out there, just like the idea, the thought put behind it. And then there's some really bad gift givers. Yes, and they're the ones that ruin everything. 100%. Like when I was, uh, man, I was probably 11 years old. And my mom's family, we used to do a big exchange, and we're talking like cousins, uncles, aunts. Yeah. Like everybody. It didn't matter who you got.

And my, uh, one of my uncles got me one year, and he asked my mom what I wanted or what I was into, and I really liked Pokemon. I was probably in, like, sixth grade or something. Nerd. My son. Do you know what he got me for Christmas? Knockoff 99 cent store Pokemon. I wish. Oh, it was a card book that told you the value of all of the cards. Of the cards. You had no interest in selling. Right. And that probably cost 7.95 in Canada. Oh, is he Canadian? You really care too?

When you're 11, like, you really want. Some good gifts. Right. So, uh, that was like, the worst for me. He could have at least spent the ten bucks and gotten you a pack of cards. No, it was just a card book. That's crazy. That's funny that you were in a Pokemon. My my husband, my son competes in card tournaments. He was at regionals in Sacramento. Oh, wow. Yeah, he's really into Pokemon and that. How long has that been around? Oh, that was my generation. It was like 20. It's. What is it?

This year is like 26 years. Yeah. That's crazy. Anyways, not a Christmas or a Pokemon show, gentlemen, but I had to ask the question. I opened up a big can of worms. Pandora's box right there. I actually forgot what even happened. I know we. Went in a time warp. Yeah, it was good. Well, we've made it on the other side of Christmas. We're. We're safe now for a few more months. Yeah, and then my birthday hits. Oh, I trained people. I trained trained people that I

don't want gifts on my birthday. If you insist on buying me things, buy me a beer. Like when we're out together. But I just want to hang out with people. So come on over. We'll barbecue. We'll get drunk. And the last couple of years, in fact, somebody was just asking me. What did you do for your birthday? I was like, nothing. Like, no, you just didn't invite me. I said, no, I totally didn't not invite you. I didn't do a birthday. I went to a cabin in the woods. You did some. Water? That's right.

And that was glorious. What a nice time. Yeah. So it was. It was one of my friends from back in the day when we used to party all day. She's like, you didn't invite me to your birthday this year. I was like, I didn't have. I haven't had a birthday in like three years. Like, I just I wanted to go stare at some water, get drunk, call it a day. I hate birthday, I hate my birthday. I, you know, I used to really enjoy my birthday and, like, enjoy making people come hang out.

It's all about the. Like I said, it's all about the experience. Come hang out. Let's barbecue. All barbecue, I don't care, it's my birthday. I'll barbecue, we'll get drunk, it'll be great. And now I'm just like, you know what? I am so fucking stressed out every day. I just want to go stare at water and get hammered. That sounds. Like. The life. Not much better than that. No, it doesn't get any better. And I did it. And it's one of my best birthdays ever.

Sorry, everybody else, but I loved it, so don't expect any party invites anytime. Soon, okay? Oh, hey, you know what? But not a Grinch slash asshole show. So, uh, back to the. You know, if you guys want to chime in, chime in with your fucking call us. 805538 beer. Tell us how you feel. Because I feel like I've hogged enough time about how big of a

dick I am. Uh, a little news before we get about here, because this is still somewhat structured. Uh, the US surgeon general wants to put cancer warnings on alcohol. US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy is calling on Congress to require health

warning labels that inform consumers about the link between alcohol consumption and the risk of cancer. He released a new advisory detailing how drinking alcohol increases the increases the risk of developing seven types of cancer. Those seven types are breast cancer, colorectal cancer, esophagus cancer, liver cancer, mouth cancer, throat cancer. And I thought this was the same as throat but voicebox cancer. Oh, larynx. Apparently they're different body parts. Yeah.

The larynx bone's connected to the throat bone. Oh, that sounds bad too. Um, here's the thing. You you go. Ahead and put the throat bone. You're welcome. Go ahead and put that warning on the old, uh, four pack there that Flex is getting for $12 that we paid 20 for. Uh, is that stopping anybody from drinking? No. It's probably not. Um, I don't think so. I'm not against the warning because, like, I was thinking about this, um, you know, like,

you can't be selective about facts, right? So they put it Cigarettes. It's actually one of few proven consumables that is proven to cause cancer. That, and like smoked meats and some different like processed meats and things like. So it's like, yeah, you know, if it does prevent some outcomes for people, I guess. Go ahead. Um, I'm still going to drink alcohol. Yeah. Let's go ahead and do it. It's it's not going to stop me. Yeah.

Maybe people. Said that about. Right. And maybe people said that about cigarettes too. Maybe people said, oh yeah, put the thing on there and people are gonna keep smoking it. And now, at least in California, like if you smoke, you looked at like you're, you. Know for sure burning. Children. Yeah. Um. Yeah. I don't know. I just people are gonna keep drinking. If they want to drink. They're gonna keep drinking. They tried to prohibit alcohol and it didn't work. No, it. Made it worse.

Yeah. So I, I don't know. Maybe also voicebox cancer from. Drinking that. I'm gonna ask McDreamy about that because, you know, he does esophagectomy, which is one of the most complicated surgeries in existence. Oh, and the outcomes are not great. Not. I'm not saying from him in general, they're just not great because it is super extra bad. But overall not great, right?

No, for sure. For sure. Not the case. But like he you have to take parts of his stomach and rebuild it in their esophagus and like it's ridiculous. So I'm like ooh, okay, I don't want that. But man I love my beer. So I don't know I don't know moderation. Does that happen in that specific cancer. Does it happen in people that talk too much asking for a friend. Oh shoot I don't know okay. Moving on. What know me because I okay podcast I talk too.

Much because you talk too. Much. Yeah. Uh, not if you and I caught. The voice is. Smooth and buttery. Oh, there we go. Hey, there you go, buddy. No, it's just. Let's talk about. News. Harsh and raspy voices. Yeah. In a world. Yeah. I've never heard of voice box cancer, though. Like. Yeah, I mean. I know sounds made. Up. It sounds like a smoking thing. Like the people who get the little box that they have to hold to the cane thing. Yeah. The cane. Thank you. Yeah.

I knew Erica would not catch the cane thing because it's a wrestling reference. Okay. But but yes, I am a roody poo candy ass bat. Okay. Okay. Yeah, it's a real thing. The for wrestling fans that listen are cracking up right now. Oh, so that's why they. Have those. Stalgia the two of them? Yeah, the two of them. That's half our listener base. But that's like from having a tracheostomy. Is that or whatever? Is that because of a voice box? I have so much more to learn.

I'm very curious. Yeah, but you've got some questions to ask. I got some. Questions. We're gonna need an update. I will totally update everyone. Thanks, Deb. Yeah, yeah. Thanks, Deb, for sending that over and asking. Making us ask more questions. Um, Stone versus Molson Coors, you know, from like, back when Stone was still Kraft,

they sued Molson Coors because of Keystone, and they were awarded a awarded a $56 million judgment, which is not too far from what they were bought for. Um, anyways, big appealing by Molson Coors. A judge has just upheld the judgment. So Molson Coors will now have to have to pay $56 million, but they will also have to pay interest on the $56 million. I didn't know that was a thing. I didn't know they would pay interest, too. Why would that be a thing?

Yeah, I guess because it's their fault that they put it off. They could have been paying and they're they're not. But it wouldn't have made it. I don't know. I guess that's I mean. Wow. Yeah. Not until the judgment upheld. Is it actually legitimate. Is it? So then why would they have, like, interest. But okay, whatever. I guess because they appealed it and they said you're you're. I see. Appeal was bullshit. I see. So not only do you have to pay, but you haven't been paying for the

seven years. You should have been. Like you wasted our time. So. Yeah. Interesting. I think it's kind of great. Wow. But, uh. Fuck both of them now. So there's that. Uh, this one's for Flex. Hi. Your favorite mall brewery, the Emporium brew pub? Yes. Is taking over Good City Brewing

and all their locations. Yeah. So they're gonna have, like, a total of five locations now. Yeah. Six something. I didn't know there was such a big brewery to be rocking that many locations. I guess they're doing very well. Yeah, apparently. I loved, I love, so I just had this conversation with my wife about another brewery who is taking over a brewery spot and keeping some of the old brewery's beers on tap. This is locally. And this story came up and I was

like, oh, this is great. So the deal does not include the Good City brands, which the Exploreum will license for a while, right? And then produce them and then phase them out over time. Emporium co-owner Mike Doble Doorbal told The News that the

beers will slowly be phased out. The Good City beers, uh founders Dan and David wanted to retain ownership of their brand, and I wasn't willing to pay for it. And he went on to say, I have my own brand, and I don't like to confuse our brand with anybody else's. I was like, I fucking like that. Here's our beer. You want our beer? Come drink it. You don't go to their fucking location. Oh, that's right, they couldn't stay open. He's I love it. That's how he is.

He's a solid dude. I like that. Thinking it's like, hey, this is my beer brand. I don't want to fuck it up with your beer brand. He's also great at remembering faces. Not so much names, but if he sees that you have ever been in his establishment, he's. He will see you anywhere else. And he will come right up to you. Sit down at your table. Oh, yeah. He's he's a wonderful guy to talk to. Hey, chief. But he knows that he's seen you and he remembers, you know, it's.

I don't expect anybody to remember, you know, how ever many people's names. Right, exactly. You know. But my memory is. Short. So good for them, though. Yeah. Doing big. Things. Yeah. You have to go to more than just the mall to drink their beer now. No, it's so close. Uh, harpoon and smutty noses. Parent companies. That's real thing, uh, are merging to form the barrel. One collective, uh,

the parent companies of Harpoon and Smuttynose, mass Bay Brewing Company and Finest Kind Brewing have merged to form barrel one. The companies announced Tuesday. Uh, barrel One collective is poised to become the largest maker of craft beer in New England, and the 14th largest in the country. Wow. Yeah. Mass Bay founder Dan Canary said in a release that the merger is about much more than just the growth.

It's about honoring our legacy while writing an exciting chapter for our companies and the northeast craft beer industry at large. Massbay and Finest Kind each bring a wide portfolio of brands to the new roll up space include harpoon, UFO, Long Trail, Clown Shoes, Otter Creek, The Shed, Catamount, Dunkin, spiked, and Right Coast Spirits. While Finest Kind makes and sells Wachusett five boroughs and Island District cocktails in addition to Smuttynose. So all super average below average stuff.

I thought of the the Dunkin one made me think of Deb. Yeah, because harpoon makes the Dunkin. Yeah. Deb had us try one of the Dunkin Spikes. I can't remember which one now. It was so bad. What was it? Was it donut, though? Like it did it? No no no. No, it was just bad. It was. I just wish they would have came up with a better collab name. You know, like Harpoon and Smuttynose could have been with, like, Like a. Nose. Spear with balls or something like that.

We've got poon, you've got smut. There's smut. Poon. Yeah, exactly. Poon. Smut. Yeah. The options are endless. Yeah, really? Instead, it's barrel one collective. Okay? Yeah. Not. Not a lot of sense making there. Yeah. Also not a barrel between those two companies. Bunch of shitty cocktails and right. Clown shoes. Clown shoes? Yeah. Blended on this one. 13 prisoners escape jail after a drunk detective opened cells and

told inmates they were free to go. The detective, in a state of intoxication, forcibly seized cell keys from Constables Sara Banda and unlocked both the male and female cells and instructed the suspects to leave, stating they were free to cross over into the new year, according to a to a statement by Zambia Police Service. How fucked up do you have to be so fucked up. So bad?

All but two of the 15 suspects in the jail at the time escaped when the cells were opened on the morning of December 31st. The suspects remained fugitives. Police spokesman Ray oo munga told the News on Friday many of the suspects face charges for serious crimes, including assault, theft and burglary. Allowing them to remain at large may pose a significant risk to public safety. The detective fled the scene but was arrested soon afterwards. The Zambia police. Zambia. Zambia.

Zambia Police has intensified efforts to locate and apprehend the escapees. We urge members of the public with any information that may assist in locking the suspects to report to the nearest police station. As of last Monday, police had not provided any update on the escaped Inmates. My goodness. Yeah. Wow. For free. I mean, if you're like, are you really, truly in trouble? If you're told by your captor, like, you're free, like, and then you just go, right? It's not like they cracked it

open themselves and ran. No. The cop said you are free to go. They were let go. Yeah. Unless he said, like, come back in an hour. They've already fled the country or something. Yeah. I love that that that's a that's a special kind of drunk right there. You have to be very intoxicated. Yeah. And he must have known he fucked up because then he fled, but was later apprehended. Right. And, you know, he's losing his job. Oh. I don't know where Zambia is, but I feel like he's more than

losing his job. And how did he not lose his life? Well, I mean, I guess, like he let them free so they were not going to attack him, but, like, how do you choose? Okay, I think I think I'm cool if I just let these ones out Like this will go okay. Well, I think he left. Everybody let everybody out. But the two of them just decided we're not gonna get in trouble and. Stayed hanging. Back. That was. At least that was my guess. Like we're gonna hang back because this is totally not normal at all.

Wow. Yeah. So, uh. Yeah. Okay. Good for him. Yeah. And his. Whatever that was. But. Yeah, he's got some homies for. Like, I was trying to. I just googled Zambia's in Africa. Okay. So, yeah, he's dude's dead for sure. For sure. There was no trial. Oh, shit. Mhm. Yeah. I knew it wasn't here because it was Constable. Well you said that too and that, that sparked my mind. I'm like I don't think that's a US story. Definitely not. Let's see where it goes. I'm like yeah. Hello, Constable.

Yeah. He faced a shooting squad for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Line him up. 21 gun salute. Yep. Right at his face. All right, let's, uh, let's end it on that happy note. Happy New year to all. Uh, it's still January. Yep. Don't participate in dry January. Be smart, be smart. Drink more. Follow us at @Neck_nosh_llc underscore, LLC. @Flex_me_a_beer underscores in

between and of course, craft beer Republic 853. Beer is the number to call. And, uh, all that good stuff. Erica two weeks in a row. Thanks for for hanging out with us. Yeah, guys, it's been great. And thanks for having me. Yeah. Lovely. It was a crunchy time. Salty. Crunchy. Salty. Crunchy time, indeed. I hope everyone is staying very well hydrated out there. And on that note. Good night everybody.